Dr. Andrea Craighero

Dr. Andrea Craighero is an English-speaking clinical psychologist in Florence. He receives patients in person in Florence and works online with people living elsewhere in Italy and abroad, in English and Italian, with adolescents and adults.

He graduated with honours in Clinical-Dynamical Psychology from the University of Padua, and has studied and trained in both Italy and the Netherlands. He is continuing his training at the Institute of Constructivist Psychology in Padua, specialising in the Psychology of Personal Constructs.

That framework is worth explaining, because it changes what happens in the room. It is humanistic: the interest is in the personal meaning behind the suffering, not in fitting it to a category. Its premise is that a person is always moving towards a future, even when weighed down by a difficult past, and the work is to build, together, new and sometimes unconventional routes forward. The aim is movement, not just insight.

He works with emotional regulation and body awareness in adults with anxiety and mood disorders, and his method is deliberately pragmatic and tailor-made: the therapeutic relationship first, then emotional, cognitive and somatic techniques chosen for the person.

He works as a clinical and sports psychologist, offers counselling for students, has supported foreign nationals with psychiatric vulnerabilities, and has led mindfulness-based groups for people who use substances. It is a range built in places where people arrive without a comfortable route into care.

He specialises in working in international contexts, where cultures, languages and life stories meet, and his second specialism is ethnopsychology: the study of how culture shapes what counts as distress and what counts as help.

He studied in England and in Albania, and has direct experience with Sub-Saharan African, Maghrebi and South Asian cultural contexts, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, alongside a working knowledge of European and Asian cultures. For a patient from any of those backgrounds, it removes the part of therapy that is usually spent explaining where you come from.

You do not have to pick him yourself. At Therapsy every person is matched by a human being, not by an algorithm: our clinical team reads your request, and if Dr. Craighero is the right fit for what you are bringing, they will introduce you. The first call is free, and it is there to check that the fit is real before anything begins.

Fewer than 1 in 100 therapists joins the Therapsy team. Dr. Craighero was personally vetted by our Clinical Director, Dr. Francesca A. Boccalari, on three non-negotiable criteria: he shares our values, he speaks at least one language beyond Italian, and he has a physical practice in Florence where you can meet in person, not only online.

Andrea Craighero does not work alone. He takes part in Therapsy’s internal clinical supervision, a standing group where therapists bring their most demanding cases, train together and ask for help when a situation calls for it. Every therapist in the network, Case Managers included, can turn to our Clinical Director for clinical questions and further training, and Therapsy runs regular professional training with senior therapists and external trainers. Scheduling, invoicing, payments and the rest of the paperwork are handled by Therapsy, so that his time with you stays clinical work and nothing else. On your side, the same platform gives you one place to see your sessions, invoices, payments and documents.

At Therapsy you do not have to pick your therapist from a list: you start by speaking with Dr. Francesca Boccalari, our Clinical Director, who listens to what you are going through and matches you with the therapist she believes is right for you: Andrea Craighero, or one of his colleagues. Then you have a free introductory call with that therapist, and only after that do you decide whether to start.

And if the fit turns out not to be right, you are not back at square one. Dr. Boccalari and her team find you another therapist inside Therapsy, at no cost, without you having to tell your story from the beginning. Choosing a therapist while you are struggling, in a language that is not your own, is a lot to ask of a person. That is the part we take on.

Dr. Craighero is registered with the Italian Order of Psychologists. He receives in Florence and works online with patients across Italy and abroad.